Groovy, Revisited
Groovy Checkerboard started its life years ago as a black and white quilt. It was one of my early experiments with solid fabrics, built from a simple square block and a growing stack of 1 ½" × 1 ½" scraps I didn’t want to waste. On paper, it worked. Bold. Graphic. High contrast.
And yet, it bothered me.
Not in a dramatic way. Just enough that I never fully settled into it. The design was strong, but the starkness felt rigid. I noticed it every time I saw the images, which is usually my sign that something in the work isn’t quite working for me. So I decided to revisit the design and pattern.
This time around, the shift started with value, not color. Instead of thinking in black and white, I started thinking in darker and lighter tones. Blue scraps had been accumulating quietly in my resource center for a while. They were the leftovers from quilts I’ve been working ahead on. Quilts that already exist fully in my world, but won’t be visible to anyone else for some time yet. Ends of cuts, partial strips, small bits saved because they were too good to discard. Enough to make something familiar, if I kept the sewing easy. Taking a quick monochrome photo helped clarify what my eye was already sensing. In black and white, the fabrics revealed how they would actually behave once pieced together. The blues softened into gentle value ranges.
At the same time, I was cleaning out my scrap tub to get it ready for donation. Before anything left the room, I pulled a pile of bright, warm solids. Reds, pinks, oranges, yellows. Some were already cut into squares. Others became short strip sets for four-patch centers. These were the scraps that felt lively, still carrying a bit of charge. These brighter fabrics jumped forward exactly where I wanted them to.
Remaking Groovy Checkerboard became a way to bring these two worlds together. Soft, creamy blues for the background. Small, bright pops at the center. The construction stayed simple on purpose. Repetitive chain piecing that didn’t ask much of me.
The quilting followed that same impulse. The original black and white version had quilting that echoed the block structure closely. This time, I used a variegated blue thread that worked well with both the light and dark fabrics. I quilted a loose, freehand square meander that followed the geometry without locking it down. The quilting isn’t dense, and the quilt itself is soft and floppy in the best way.
Even the back stayed true to the spirit of the remake. A true frankenbacking. Strips left over from previous projects, trimmed and pieced together without much planning. Fabric used because it was there.
This version of Groovy Checkerboard finally feels like itself. Familiar, but calmer. Graphic, but softer. I’ve been working well ahead lately, which means there are quilts in my studio that won’t be visible for a while yet. Finished, folded, and waiting. Groovy Checkerboard happened to fit into the space I had right now. It was ready, and I was ready to let it go.
The rest will come when it’s time.
